Secret Life Of Suicide Games

Whether or not the Blue Whale Challenge—a bizarre online ‘game’ that originated in Russia—is to blame, a recent series of teen suicides is causing parents a great deal of worry

- Moeena Halim

For about six months before he took his own life on July 26, 16-year-old R. Manoj Chandran had been engaging in a solitary nightly ritual. At midnight, he would lock himself in his room, emerging only at 7 am, in time to greet his mother and sister before leaving for school, the St Shanthal Higher Secondary School in Malamukal, Thiruvananthapuram. What was he doing alone during those dark hours?

His mother, Anu, wondered at the sudden change in his behaviour. But, she reasoned, he was well into his teens, and probably needed some time alone. He had always been tech-savvy and fond of playing computer games on the family desktop. Although he now accessed the internet on his mobile phone in the privacy of his room, Anu thought this new ritual was just an adolescent quirk that wouldn’t last. It was only in retrospect that she realised her son had been giving signals that something was critically amiss.

THE WARNING SIGNS

It wasn’t just changes in his sleeping habits. Manoj had become short-tempered and more emotional than usual. On one occasion, after telling his mother that he was going for a concert with his friends, he had instead gone to Shankumugham beach, alone. On another occasion, he had wandered off to the local cemetery—again, alone. In February this year, when Anu found him with a bandaged arm, Manoj tried to dismiss the injury with a story about hurting himself while climbing a wall. When Anu insisted on inspecting the wound, she found that Manoj had cut the letters ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘I’ into his arm using a compass—just for fun, he said. He had also casually brought up the topic of death, asking her if she would be heartbroken if she found him dead. At a loss for words, she had shouted at him, saying that she would rather die than discuss such things. “He laughed and hugged me,” she recalls.